Why Romney Skipped Minnesota

With Rick Santorum poised to pull off a victory in Minnesota early on, the Romney campaign had to choose between fight or flight.

They chose flight. And Mr. Santorum ended up winning the Minnesota caucuses Tuesday.

A day after sailing to victory in Florida, Mitt Romney made a single appearance in Minnesota. Then he canceled a scheduled appearance for later that week, leaving former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Ambassador John Bolton to rally voters in his stead. His advisers began downplaying expectations for Tuesday night’s nonbinding contests.

At the time the campaign blamed the canceled Minnesota stop on the travel time. In reality it was a question of priorities…